More than half of Germans think planned Greek deal is bad – poll

BERLIN: More than half of Germans think the planned deal with Greece is bad and many would have preferred that the crisis-stricken country left the euro zone rather than getting the chance for further aid, according to an opinion poll.

Lawmakers in Germany, the biggest contributor to euro zone bailouts, on Friday gave their go-ahead for the currency bloc to negotiate a third bailout for Greece that could total 86 billion euros ($93 billion) over three years.

In the YouGov survey seen by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, 56 percent of respondents said they thought the plan for such a deal with Greece was bad, with just over one fifth of those saying it was very bad.

Only 2 percent deemed it to be positive while another 27 percent said they thought it was somewhat positive.

The poll of 1,380 Germans showed there was a lack of enthusiasm in Europe’s largest economy about the result of Friday’s vote, Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday, adding that the poll showed 48 percent of Germans would have liked to see Greece quit the euro zone.

Only a third clearly said they wanted the country to remain a member of the single currency bloc, the newspaper said.

A separate survey by pollster Forsa published on Friday showed that 53 percent of German voters had wanted parliament to back the negotiations, with 42 percent against.